DevilRising said:
I wouldn't say it "sucks". But it did come off exactly as I feared it would the moment I heard that they threw Lucas' ACTUAL Episode VII story treatment out the window: as bad fan-fiction. And you can thank Mr. Abrams for that, as he helped re-write the script.
I honestly enjoyed the prequels, and for their many flaws, things they NEVER did that this new film does, include NOT having any just outright blatantly stupid/ridiculous plot elements. Certain things certain whiny fanboys didn't care for? Sure, aplenty. But nothing that just smacks you in the face with "REALLY?" Such as a *SPOILERS* sun-sucking planet-turned-deathstar, that can shoot megabeams ACROSS ENTIRE MULTIPLE SYSTEMS, and then split in five just because and blow several planets up at once. Just because. That literally comes off as something a five year old would write: "Well THIS time, we're going to have an even BIGGER Death Star, and THIS time, it's gonna suck in entire SUNS, even though it's a LIVING PLANET with snow and trees, because that TOTALLY is feasible, and then it's going to shoot lasers across space SO BIG that you'll be able to see the beam in the sky from another planet FAR AWAY, and then the beam is gonna split in FIVE because it's THAT ADVANCED, and blow everything up without so much as a moment of ceremony.....because.....well because."
Or perhaps Finn, the guy who was kidnapped as a kid and raised/conditioned his ENTIRE LIFE to be a Storm Trooper, yet once he breaks away, he displays NO actual symtoms or struggles with said conditioning, which would have made for an ACTUALLY compelling character. Instead, he just acted scared, cracked out of place jokes, and made sure to fit in a couple of "token black guy" moments, like going all Will Smith in the absolutely-no-reason-to-actually-exist Captain Phasma's face. Which, by the way, was also totally out of place.
The movie came off like an episode of a Joss Whedon show, with SO much humor, much of it forced, and SO many constant wink/nod/nudges to remind you that "HEY, this is just like the OLD Star Wars, RIGHT?", that it got old really fast.
There were GOOD things about the movie....but to me, the BAD things about it really drown them out. It was not well written, most of the new characters outside of Rey were pointless, and the movie was just one vague allusion after another, plotwise, while at the same time being a carbon copy of Episode IV.
Say what you will about the prequels. I myself agree they used TOO much CGI, and that the romantic acting moments seemed stiff/forced, as if they didn't get enough takes or something. And there WERE a couple of "HUH?" moments, like never seeing the Jedi even question Anakin about what happened with his mother and the Sand People, and what he did to them. But the one thing you CAN say about the prequels, is that they told original stories, they WERE actually trying to tell their own story, and were not just pandering to fans of the original trilogy, they weren't just stuffed with fan-service to make people cheer.
And honestly, I think that once people take the "Star Wars glasses" off, and look at this film with a sober mindset, most of them will realize that they don't think it's so "GREAT" after all, but rather, they were blinded by the constant fan-service. That is not what a new Star Wars film should be. If they were GOING to bother making a new trilogy, they should have kept Lucas on-board as a consultant, as originally planned, and actually STUCK to his original stories for them, as originally planned.
I will always wonder what he actually intended to happen, instead of whatever fanboy bullshit that Abrams and Co. managed to concoct. And to think Disney tries to tell us that all of the EU shit is no longer "canon", even though Lucas once said at least some of it was, and yet we're expected to buy that THIS is canon, and is somehow "better" (When it clearly isn't). I didn't like the Thrawn Trilogy concept, unlike so many fans, but I would rather have had THAT been adapted, than what they've come up with so far.
I'm just glad Abrams won't be writing/directing the next two.....so hopefully they might drop the fan-service shit, an some of the ridiculous five year old style ideas, and possibly get a bit better. But I honestly have very little enthusiasm for them after seeing this, which is too bad. I had a very bad feeling after Lucas sold to Disney, that the franchise was just going to be whored out and watered down, and so far, sadly, that seems to be playing out.
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